


Summer Camp Activities

by skitterdwell



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Family, Family Fluff, Gen, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-12
Updated: 2016-12-12
Packaged: 2018-09-08 00:52:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8823451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skitterdwell/pseuds/skitterdwell
Summary: He’s jolted into consciousness early one morning by a shrill whistle. It’s Peridot with a cereal box whistle and a book titled “Summer Camp Activities,” “library sale,” and “50 cents.”“Wake up, clod! We have an agenda!”





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ferricent](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ferricent/gifts).



> For tumblr user ferricent, who requested the following: "Prompt: Peridot thinks it is a CRIME that Steven has never gone to summer camp." Fairly self-explanatory.
> 
> With some extra Amedot, because that's how we roll.

“Never?”

“Never.” Steven takes a bite out of his popsicle and watches Peridot implode.

“Unacceptable! Why would Rose Quartz give up her physical form to a human-Gem hybrid if _not_ to experience the joys of summer camp firsthand?”

“Uh. I’m wondering something like that, too,” replies Steven. “But… maybe she didn’t know it existed.”

“No. If she was as great an admirer of human culture as Greg implies, then she definitely would be aware of it. It’s the pinnacle of human activities. A microcosm of human society, garnished with activities designed to foster independence and improve survival skills. _What could she have been thinking_?”

Steven digs up a blank cassette tape and has her rage about it outside of the other Gems’ hearing. Then, they both forget about it. Well, Steven forgets about it.

He’s jolted into consciousness early one morning by a shrill whistle. It’s Peridot with a cereal box whistle and a book titled “Summer Camp Activities,” “library sale,” and “50 cents.”

“Wake up, clod! We have an agenda!”

 **Item One: Flag Raising**. It’s actually the bathroom rug, and Peridot can only really tie it to the umbrella stand above the picnic table, but it works. Steven plays the Camp Pining Hearts theme song on his phone.  

 **Item Two: Breakfast.** The smell of waffles coming out of the toaster summons Amethyst, who immediately volunteers and forms her own whistle.

“Together, we will make the perfect camp counselor formation!” says Peridot. “I provide the tragic backstory, and Amethyst brings the camp spirit. You will be unable to resist our counseling and motivational tactics!”

Amethyst shoots finger guns at her before reburying her head in the fridge.

 **Item Three: Morning Activities: Hiking, Tracking, and Swimming.** Their trip to Rose’s hill is abruptly derailed when Peridot spots tracks in the beach sand. She compares them to the pictures in the book. “Not a deer, not a bobcat, not a badger…” she mutters, moving a finger down the page.

“Uh, they look like Barb’s footprints. She’s probably just delivering mail.”

“Well, we should follow them! To see if we can find her. And…” Peridot consults the book again. “… make good observations about her natural habitat!”

The tracks lead to the Big Donut, where Sadie reveals that Barb had indeed visited a few minutes previously. Peridot immediately confiscates the doughnuts Steven buys and Amethyst eats them in short order.

“No sweets for campers,” orders Peridot. Before Steven’s whine gains too much steam, his phone rings; Connie’s free and wants to hang out.

“She can join us for swimming for the rest of the morning. Spending time on the beach in undergarments is key to maximum enjoyment of the local climate!”

“I’ve never swum in the ocean before,” remarks Connie later as they face the surf. “Oooh, it looks cold.” Peridot and Amethyst look at each other; Amethyst grins, eyes half-lidded, and shoves Connie and Steven into the waves. Peridot spends the next half hour trying to teach them the elementary backstroke using the illustrated guide in the book without setting foot in the water herself; Amethyst gets bored, shapeshifts into an eel, and slithers between Steven and Connie with watery cackles as they shriek and flop away from her.

Lapis spots them from the beach house porch and flies over; she molds the water into slides and hands that toss and catch Steven and Connie. They go up together in a particularly enthusiastic throw and are caught by the water again as Stevonnie, rumbling with laughter and joy at the sunlight and the seawater.

**Item Four: Lunch.**

“Bug juice?!” Pearl is aghast.

“Yes, bug juice. Paulette cites it _frequently_ as a lunchtime beverage. Do we not have any?”

“It’s got to be slang for something,” says Connie. “Steven, can you look it up?”

“On it! …. Oh, I guess it’s just like really sugary fruit punch.”

“Absolutely not,” says Pearl as Connie makes a face. “No bug juice OR _bug juice_ will be served in this house, and _that’s final_.”

**Item Five: Quiet Time.**

“It’s not like we’re complaining, but why do we have to have quiet time?”

“Counselors need a break from supervising campers.” Peridot shoos them away. “Go play cards or read a book something. But no video games!”

Steven and Connie wander up to Steven’s room, and Peridot finds Amethyst sitting in the shade under the porch with a comic book.

“Dude, I’ve been waiting for this all day,” says Amethyst as Peridot plunks down next to her. “What is it camp counselors do during quiet time anyway?”

“This,” says Peridot, and she spends the next hour learning how to braid Amethyst’s hair while Amethyst finishes the comic book. Quiet time ends late when Steven and Connie discover them in a lazy stupor, Peridot’s hands fisted in Amethyst’s hair and a stray dandelion dangling out of Amethyst’s mouth as she turns the pages.

**Item Five: Afternoon Activities: Swordplay, Archery, Firemaking Skills**

Counselor Pearl refuses a whistle, but thanks Peridot for thinking of her. Peridot blows the whistle on her command, and a few times not on her command.

Steven and Connie break off to discuss archery; Amethyst and Peridot glance at each other, then at Pearl.

“What? Oh, for goodness sake.”

Opal materializes and surveys them all with amusement; she creates small bows for Connie and Steven to practice proper form. Peridot clambers onto her back and they play silly word games as the kids practice, forgetting to keep score, as the sun passes overhead.

The lesson ends and Opal declines unfusing; instead, she watches as Peridot ropes Garnet into making a fire on the beach, and the lesson devolves into a competition to see which piece of beach detritus burns the crackliest.

**Item 6: Dinner and Storytelling.**

There’s only one hot dog in the fridge, so Peridot allows Steven to order a pizza. She, Steven, and Opal walk down to Fish Stew Pizza to pick it up; Opal pokes her head in the door and introduces herself to Kiki Pizza. They return to eat, and are later joined by Sour Cream and Buck Dewey, who had heard through Jenny that there was a rockin’ party at the beach with a four-armed giant woman. They sit around the fire and tell stories about school and Sour Cream’s dad and Buck’s favorite book this summer and Steven’s childhood.

**Item 7: Talent Night.**

Sour Cream raves for them, and when Jenny shows up on break, she pulls her trombone from the pizza car trunk and plays a song from memory; Steven makes up lyrics for it, and Amethyst challenges her to make different strange noise with the slide. Peridot reenacts the first five minutes of a Camp Pining Hearts episode as night finally falls. Opal winks at Garnet, stands, summons her bow, and lets loose several arrows into the night sky – they shatter and dissolve into stars in the dark, cloudless distance.

**Item 8: Lowering the flag.**

Jenny plays taps as Steven and Peridot wrestle the rug off of the umbrella pole; the Cool Kids drive Connie back into town, and Opal melts into Pearl and Amethyst, who grin at each other as they go their separate ways. Peridot helps Steven replace the rug in the bathroom.

“Even if she knew what summer camp was, I don’t think my mom could have dreamed about something this fun,” he says, giving her a hug. “Thank you for such a good day, Peridot.”

Amethyst presses a kiss to Peridot’s cheek when she emerges – “Ya did a good, counselor clod.”


End file.
